Race Reports

Mens A
A disappointing result in the Thursday heats, qualifying 5th. This was a couple of seconds off 4th which would have meant a B final, and 10 seconds off 3rd place.
The C final on Saturday was won convincingly, therefore finishing 5th overall.
The reason why I write this update late is due to this result. Its a big one to get over. Rhodes have not done this badly in a couple of years and equals the worst we have ever done at a boatrace.
This, however, was not due to any lack of desire, fitness or preparation. We prepared for this race as well as any other boatrace that I have done as well any other stories that I have heard from previous years. The rhodes way of training has not changed in any way and such a result if anything could only be put down to a bit of inexperience. This can only be positive as such an error can not occur in years to come if this group of rowers carry on rowing.

Times: Thursday heat:
start: 00:58:55.57
finish: 01:17:18.68
time: 00:18:23.11
difference: 00:00:02.21
Saturday:

Mens A 5&6

2nd Wits 20:30.55

1st Rhodes 19:47.09

Overall TUKS won the event followed by UCT, then UJ then NMMU.

Womens A
What a result and what a job by the girls.
The girls caught up to UCT in the thursday heats and got off the water positive. They were up against a couple of South African oarswomen in both the TUKS boat and the UJ boat. They finished 2nd, putting the UJ boat out of the A final.
The Saturday A final saw some of the worst conditions I have ever experienced at boatrace. The winds were reaching 40km an hour with the gusts at 60km an hour. Rhodes lost the A final, finishing with a silver medal. The girls won the trophy for most improved womens crew.

Times: Thursday heat:
 start:00:31:37.57
finish:00:45:33.54
time:00:13:55.97
difference:00:00:15.13

Saturday:

Womens A Final

2nd Rhodes 17:52.85

1st Tuks 16:54.74

M&F Trophy

Most improved women

Rhodes

TUKS won with Rhodes 2nd, UCT 3rd and UJ 4th.

Mens B
Similar to the mens A race, the Thursday heats saw the final being made by 2 crews who were just leagues above their opponents. Rhodes were just on the outside of this finishing 3rd.
The Friday final saw us take on TUKS for 3rd/4th place. The TUKS crew was one which was getting better each race. They had formed on the weekend but were made up of top schoolboy rowers.
They got the better of us in the final, going against heats predictions. Rhodes finished 4th.

Thursday heats:
start: 00:52:03.32
finish: 01:14:09.35
time: 00:22:06.03
difference 00:00:49.52

Friday finals:
3rd TUKS
4th Rhodes

UCT won with Stellenbosch 2nd, TUKS 3rd and Rhodes 4th.

Womens B
A pretty incredible result for the girls and one which hopefully sets the precadent for years to come.
The girls were strong and the preparation showed this as well as the times on Thursday.

Thursday heats:
start: 00:51:20.62
finish: 01:05:36.00
time: 00:14:15.38

The saturday A final saw the biggest margin of a win I have ever seen.

Womens B Final

2nd Tuks 21:20.39

1st Rhodes 18:34.70

Boatrace crews

heads races are getting off today.
the b girls are coming down now, followed by the b boys at 10 30, a girls at 12 30 then the a boys at 14 30.

mens A boat

8. graydon theron
7. sam vosper
6. tristan wentworth
5. andy peebles
4. scott walraven
3. robert stuart-thompson
2. charles o'donaghue
1. jedrick theron
cox. kaira bray

womens A boat

8. michelle smit

7. adele street

6. lauren cowie

5. tay johnston

4. kiara watermeyer

3. manon d'unienville

2. jaclyn whelan

1. jessica harris

cox. samantha beukes

gondwanaland titans
8. dean moore
7. dino rapelas
6. matthew de klerk
5. gareth nuttall-smith
4. sky roberts
3. anthony davidovics
2. kelvin kelly
1. jethro hundli
cox. william westgate

dianartemis avengers
8. jessica macneill
7. samantha beckley
6. maria taylor
5. caryn reeves
4. samantha parsons
3. pippa muskett
2. emma richardson
1. stacy doman
cox. nicola wilmot

1 week till boatrace

1 week till boatrace. This is my 5th boatrace. You would think after 5 years that the feeling would become numb and that excitement will slowly die away.. but it hasn't, and thats the power of boatrace.

girls A crew

Its that power which keeps me competing year after year,

that power which keeps the old rurc alumni asking "hows things going".. "hows the crew looking", "how you guys feeling",

the power which keeps the hundreds of purple rhodents coming back to line the banks between the bridges and add voice to the thunderous roar everytime a purple crew rows past,

that power which keeps the rurc old making the long trek back to port alfred, coming back to support such as mouse, rox, carl and co.

dianartemis 8

Its one week to go but the fun for us starts now. We head up to PA tomo and each crew are staying in separate houses till wednesday. Then we move into the ferrymans. Its been a while since we last stayed at the ferrymans, as we've chosen houses and lodges in the last couple of years. but the stories have gone round about ferrymans and the crews are pretty keen to experience the vibe. one such story from my experience:

paddy 'patches' matteshuik had enjoyed a successful season in '07 and '08 but had decided not to row for '09. he was still pretty keen to come to boatrace though for his latest pastime.. the never ending mare, and had taken whatever accomodation was available in port alfred which had happenned to be a room in the ferrymans.

our gonndwanaland crew were a member short however and managed to convince him to do the 6km row the day after checking in, much to the amusement of supporters on the banks as a fully unfit and blown patches rowed past shipwreck corner.. still a good km left in the race.. the boatrace course spares no man.



i tried to find a picture of the gondwanaland crew by checking liams pictures, but all i could find was liam in his natural habitat
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kidding



gondwanaland crew

so the crews are pretty keen for this last stretch. sickness has hit the crews a little making this last week a bit hard but it looks as if we should be in the clear for the training ahead. i feel a good few seconds can be made if this week is used effectively and the right focus applied. it seems as if thats exactly what the A guys have in mind with a mock scheduled for tomorrow.

please stay posted for the announcement of the crews to follow as well as regular updates.

mens A8

The Kowie

We're back on the Kowie.

kowie bridge, even better at night

I haven't posted in a while.. and if you're hoping this is a big comeback post, sorry to disappoint- its just an update- and the update is as already stated we're back on the Kowie.

jax, lolz and tay

We packed boats before tri varsity and headed up to Port Alfred hoping to race NMMU dibaz on the Saturday for tri var. Unfortunately this never took place due to a mix up at sports admin. The official reason was that the river was not booked and as a result the nmmu sports admin could not recognize it as a tri varsity race and would not give their crews funding to come to port alfred. A bit of a disappointment as these mock trials are a good indicator of boatrace preparations and have a little bit of rivalry and history attached to it- not only in the eastern cape but also up in joeys where pre boatrace races between wits/uj and tuks happen and also in cape town where stellies take on uct.

our 4 crews though still went ahead with a mock.

training up to this point was all being done at settlers, but now for the weeks leading up to boatrace they will be done on the kowie.

sessions have been good although the wind has picked up this last weekend. this hasn't really been the case over previous years where the trend has usually been calm for the weeks leading up to boatrace and then a bit of rough weather the week of boatrace so it will be interesting to see how this pans out-will keep you updated.

mens A8 at shipwreck corner

the water at night has been a pretty epic colour and you can't better a rowing session at this time when its calm. this brings me onto scott walraven.

scott walraven

scott walraven managed to capture the true beauty of rowing on the kowie when he described once of its best parts- and that was on one of those night sessions, where visibility is a bit poor at the end of the session, coming into the last straight and under the bridges. he described the sound of the unified finish coming under the bridges. the boat only goes under the bridge for a couple of seconds but you are guaranteed at least 2, maybe three strokes in that time and if the boat is set and the timing right the sound of the finish has a distinct echo as it bounces off the underside of the bridges. the feeling is pretty awesome. i told him wait until boatrace where you have a crowd of rhodes supporters adding to the noise.

scotts next description was that of the mill where his exact words were "is that it?". i don't want to indulge on to many rurc secrets so i think for the sake of preserving the wonder that is the mill i will not say anymore.

scott walraven



just a couple of quotable qoutes about the Mighty Kowie to end off with:

andrew theron, rurc 2006-2009, "just you wait guys, when you're on that river, coming down the last stretch and the crowds making that noise.. there's no feeling like it"

carl de beer, rurc 2009-2011, "its always blood, sweat and tears on the Kowie"

sam vosper, rurc pres 2012, "i was singing all praises for the Kowie 10 days ago, but now i despise it with all this salt on the boat"

Start of camp: trials, water effort and a tip and slip

Trials
The mens side got back on camp and pulled trials on the 5th. Tradition has usually stated in the past that you are not allowed to row a boat on camp until you have completed a trial.
This was the second trial for the men since the start of training at the end of May and results were not good in comparison. Times were not better with the second trial, in some cases, being up to 30secs off their previous effort.

Rowing Effort
Doing a lot of water time down at settlers. We're averaging 14km easy per session. Its not a straight dam so the corners are the only worry at the moment- we're having to stop once or twive during each staright of the dam. One straight of the dam is about 3km and we're doing that 4 times per session.

It was interesting to note in the video above of Tristans race off with a schoolgirl sculler. His list of excuses for being rowed through included:
-the settings on his scull were wrong
-she was rating one or two pips higher than he was
-she had the inside line
-boatrace is a sweep oar event, not a sculling event.

Tip and slip
Manon, Jess and Jax were here a bit early for their camp and so had a session in the pair.
Jess expains in the vidoe how Jax and Manon managed to tip the pair.
The humbling part though is while I'm there jesting at the girls when they come in, I stand and take a few steps back and slip through the docking boards- have a watch:

All and all its pretty kiff training at the moment. Here's a video showing just how good it is training in Africa. Last few sessions haven't been as nice though with quite a bit of wind making training hard.

Micheen Thornycroft, Blake Friedman

Rowing in the RURC can set you up for a good future. Andrew Theron, Boatrace Crew 2006-2009 and captain in 2008, firmly states that the qualities he relies on in the workplace today, he learnt from his days in the RURC.

This being said, it can even set you up for a good career in rowing-as can be seen from recent happenings:

Micheen Thornycroft, Womens Boatrace A Crew 2006-2009, has qualified for the London Olympics representing Zimbabwe in the heavyweight scull. She had qualifying races in Egypt against other African countries toward the end of last year, which she won to earn her spot. The first hurdle prior to this was to prove that she was the fastest in Zimbabwe and perhaps an even earlier hurdle was to get fast in a scull- a boat she had not rowed in a while as her university rowing consisted of a lot of sweep oar.

On the Rowing Tour in between World Cups 2012

Since then she has competed at 2 rowing world cups coming 10th and 13th respectively. Her aim for the olympics, let alone the dream of qualifying, is to be placed in the top 12 out of the 30 or so competitors.

Boatrace womens A crew 2009, seated 5

Micheen competed in 4 boatraces at Rhodes winning in 2006 and 2007 and coming second in 2008 and 2009. She was captain in 2007, vice president in 2008 and president in 2009. While at Rhodes Micheen, known as Mouse, competed at Henley in a very good coxless four-the whole boat going on to make Blues as well as a pair with her sister Rose for Zimbabwe at the World Under 23's.

Living the dream

Blake Friedman, Mens Boatrace A crew 2008-2009 and Gondwanaland Crew 2007, won the Thames Challenge Cup at the Henley Royal Regatta. The Thames Challenge Cup is the club mens 8 event. He won with Molesey Boat Club, the English based club he now represents.

Thames Challenge Cup Winners,Molesey Boat Club, Blake 3rd from left

Racing at the Henley Royal Regatta for Molesey, seated 3

Blake was involved in the infamous Rhodes-Stellies 2007 B Crew final in which Rhodes triumphed only to be told that the race was to be re-rowed due to various clashes and claims coming from them. Rhodes were unable to row due to an after race beer too many as well as an injury in the boat and the official victory was given to stellies, a victory which Blake and the crew still reject to this day. Blake even went as far as to make a cap and shirt which read "Stellies- medals in the post", which he wore at the next years boatrace.

His results in the A crew were 5th in 2008 and 4th in 2009.



Boatrace mens A crew 2009, seated 6



Blake was most notably known for his strength on the erg and pulled a 16:36 in his last boatrace season for Rhodes.

living the dream

RURC mens-Typical days training

We've just entered our vac. We've got roughly 2 weeks off before the men start their camp on the 5th and the ladies on the 8th.

We did well to keep up the training during exams. For the last couple of weeks before vac started, our training days consisted of water sessions, ergo sessions, gym, runs and tank sessions.

A bit of the gym on the mens side:

And a trip to settlers, a dam on a nature reserve where we train, roughly 25km away:

Q&A with womens coach Graham Allin

We caught up with Graham Allin and some of the women in the middle of a 12km ergo session.

RURC: When did your girls start training for Boatrace 2012:

Allin: Training for Boatrace started at the beginning of May and at the moment we’re just really focusing on building up base fitness, doing long ergs, getting as much water time as we can which is difficult at the moment given that the girls have exams, but any opportunity we get to get on the water we take that.

RURC: What would your typical week include (training wise)?

Allin: Typical week probably constitutes 4 ergos, most of them being long, some of them interval training, we have 2 alternate sessions a week and 2 to 3 gym sessions as well.

RURC: Alternate sessions, can you describe those?

Allin: Alternate sessions is just for the girls to mix it up so they don’t get bored cos as you can imagine the long ergs are quite monotonous, so either involves going for a cycle or run at UT2 training.

RURC: … and the gym programme?

Allin: At the moment we’re trying to build up the girls’ maximum strength so really doing a lot of heavy weights and low reps, just really tring to build up that maximum strength early on in the season.

RURC: How is the make-up of your squad at the moment?

Allin: We have 15 girls in our A squad at the moment which is quite comfortable. Rhodes hasn’t enjoyed that for a number of years. We do have 5 to 6 really experienced, high calibre girls, and we do have a large contingent of novice girls, and girls that rowed at school. A lot of girls in the squad, I’m talking about the inexperienced one’s here-the novice girls, although they might not be as technically proficient as the others, we have a big bunch of strong novice girls that are pulling really big erg times so hopefully we can get them up to scratch by the time Boatrace comes round.

RURC: Whats the plan for the next couple of weeks?

Allin: We just try get as many sessions on the water as we can basically, given the fact that we have a lot of inexperienced girls obviously time on the water is king. It is a very flexible programme with the fact that girls are writing exams but dedication doesn’t seem to be a problem especially with the high of girls we have at the moment going for A squad the competition is quite tough for every seat.

RURC: Is there a camp happening?

Allin: Our camp starts early June, it’s a 2 and half week camp out at Settlers dam and we’re hoping to spend a weekend or 2 on the Kowie, that’ll basically consist of gyming and a lot of rowing.

RURC: Anything else you would like to add?

Allin: Nothing other than the fact that we’re looking forward to what the training camp has to hold and it’s a really exciting prospect we haven’t had this much depth for many years at Rhodes and its exciting times to come.

Th rurc mens pulled their frist ergo trial on 27 may.

the times posted were:
dean 18:45
scott 18:52
dino 20:26
sky 19:13
gareth 20:27
sam 17:15
stu 17:04
tristan 17:52
matt 18:53
gray 17:16
jed 18:39
peebs 16:57
john rob 18:40
charlie 19:13

A bit about the blog...

This blog will contain a personal view as well as a club view of the Rhodes Rowing Boatrace account of 2012. It will include the preparations, the build up and the outcomes of the Rhodes University Rowing Clubs' (RURC) campaign at this years South African Universities Boatrace.

The regatta is a 6km race modelled on that of the famous Oxford-Cambridge Boatrace. It is held in September each year and consists of several universities from around South Africa.

We hope that you enjoy the blog by getting an inner glance of the workings of a student run club in their quest to live the dream.